Monday, July 26, 2010

EU Launches Probe Against IBM - WSJ.com

A curious contrast to IBM’s public posturing about “open”

Reanimating long-dormant scrutiny of International Business Machines Corp., European Union antitrust authorities said Monday they have opened formal investigations into Big Blue's conduct in the market for powerful mainframe computers.

One of the EU's probes was spurred by complaints from two small technology companies that IBM improperly blocks customers from using the mainframe's operating system without IBM's own pricey hardware. The other probe is examining whether IBM is squelching third-party providers of spare mainframe parts